Details are scarce, but the new TV series won’t be a remake of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Instead, the Amazon press release says the series—much like the Hobbit trilogy—will "explore new storylines preceding J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring." The new TV series will be adapted from "previously unexplored stories based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s original writings," so get hype, all you hardcore Silmarillion fans. And there’s already a contingency for a second spinoff series (about which no further details have been revealed).

So what does it take to bring an epic fantasy series like the Lord of the Rings to the small screen? Deadline reports that Amazon ponied up somewhere around $200 million just for the rights to Tolkien’s work, and that each season will likely cost somewhere between $100 and $150 million to produce. It’s a good thing Amazon has ferreted away more money than Smaug, because they’re going to need it.

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